Between Sunderland and Crystal Palace to prop up Premier League

Paolo Di Canio is certainly not hanging around in terms of making changes to his playing personnel at Sunderland, with seven new faces already brought into the Stadium of Light and more expected to follow.

Striker Jozy Altidore could well be next, but this backing from chairman Ellis Short does not diminish the fact that Sunderland are worth considering at 12/1 to finish bottom of the Premier League this season.

This proposal is not based on the fact that Di Canio may find it tough to mould a host of new players into a team, but rather on their finishing position in the top flight in the last campaign.

Sunderland’s defeat on the final day at Tottenham meant that they avoided the relegation places by just a single position and three points from Wigan.

However, the last three teams to prop up the Premier League standings – QPR, Wolves and West Ham – had all finished 17th in their campaign previous.

In fact, five of the last 13 teams to finish bottom had avoided the drop by a single position one season earlier and this is a fair statistic.

Those expecting Di Canio to improve Sunderland’s fortunes may instead prefer to back Crystal Palace to finish bottom of the Premier League this season at 12/5.

Not once in the last four seasons has a newly-promoted side finished 20th in the Premier League, but it has happened on 10 occasion in the Premier League era.

And of these 10, it has been the Championship play-off winners that have landed the Premier League wooden spoon seven times.

One team to avoid in the Premier League betting to finish bottom is Hull, despite Steve Bruce’s men being second favourites in this particular market at 3/1.

Never in the Premier League era has the team to gain promotion to the top flight by finishing runners up in the second tier gone straight back down in bottom spot.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.